Iran has one of the best medical and public health infrastructures in the Middle East, exporting its cadre of physicians abroad for decades. But the crisis has revealed a nation where politics and appearances trump public safety.

Borzou Daragahi is a journalist and a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Programs.

He is a foreign correspondent who has been covering the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe for more than sixteen years. He is now based in Istanbul, writing for The Independent.

He previously wrote for BuzzFeed News, the Financial Times and the Los Angeles Times, and has contributed to The New York Times, Boston Globe, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, the Daily Beast, and the Daily Star of Lebanon among others. He has appeared frequently as a guest on television and radio broadcasts.

Borzou covered the 2003 US invasion of Iraq as well as its build-up and lengthy aftermath. He covered the 2006 war in Lebanon, the 2008 war in Georgia, the 2009 uprising in Iran, the chaotic consequences of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Syria, and the 2014 rise of the Islamic State and subsequent wars to defeat it. He has also reported in Afghanistan and in Europe, covering political and security issues in Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Cyprus. He has covered the lengthy standoff over the Iran’s nuclear program.

He has been a Pulitzer Prize finalist three times, once for coverage of Iran and twice for Iraq, and has received Overseas Press Club honors for Iraq and Iran coverage. He is a graduate Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and the Eugene Lang College of the New School for Social Research. He has taught undergraduate journalism at Purchase College and Pratt Institute in New York and has appeared frequently as a guest speaker on university campuses.

Born in Iran, he grew up in the Chicago area and New York City. He speaks Persian as well as some Spanish, German, Arabic, and a little French and Turkish.

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